The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Saturday announced its first list of 11 candidates, including a transgender, ahead of the Maharashtra assembly election dates. Announcing the candidates at a press conference here, VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar said transgender Shamibha Patil, who hails from the Leva Patil community, will contest from the Raver assembly seat in Jalgaon district of north Maharashtra. Elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly are likely to be held in mid-November.
Prakash Ambedkar also announced two candidates of VBA’s alliance partners Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) and Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP). Anil Jadhav (BAP) will contest from Chopra (reserved) seat in Jalgaon, while Harish Uikey (GGP) will contest from Ramtek in Nagpur. “Staying true to our sacred ideology, we have given representation to the deprived, Bahujan groups, with the aim of achieving true representation and political power and breaking the hegemony of families of certain castes,” the VBA chief said while announcing the list. He said the party has announced names of candidates from various social communities, which have been socially and politically ostracised by mainstream parties and their governments.
Kishan Chavan, who hails from the Pardhi community, will be the party’s candidate from Shevgaon (Ahmednagar). “Apart from fielding two Buddhists, representatives of disadvantaged caste groups such as Dhivar, Lohar, Vaddar have also been given place in the first list,” Prakash Ambedkar said. The VBA has also fielded Savita Mundhe from Sindkhed Raja seat (Buldhana), Megha Kiran Dongre from Washim and a Muslim candidate Farooq Ahmed from Nanded South.
Nilesh T Vishwakarma (Lohar community) from Dhamangaon Railway (Amravati), Vinay Bhange (Buddhist) from Nagpur South West, Dr Avinash Nanhe (Dhivar) from Sakoli (Bhandara), Shiva Narangale (Lingayat) from Loha (Nanded), Vikas Raosaheb Dandge (Maratha) from Aurangabad East and Sangram Krishna Mane (Waddar) from Khanpur (Sangli).
Ambedkar said, “More names will be announced in the coming days. We are in touch with major political parties and soon more parties will join our alliance.” Before the Lok Sabha elections held this year, the VBA had tried to join hands with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (SP). However, the talks between them did not move forward. The Ambedkar-led party then contested several seats on its own, but could not win a single seat.